A demonstration of using a PowerShell workflow as a scripting tool to download the Sysinternals suite of tools.

Update-SysinternalsWorkflow.ps1

#requires -version 4.0

#https://gist.github.com/jdhitsolutions/f0415db6bc8dc6236fb3

<#
A PowerShell workflow to download Sysinternals tools from web to a local folder.

Last updated: February 15, 2016
version     : 2.1

Changelog:
 2.0
 Moved path validation to a sequence step
 If destination doesn't exist it will be created.
 Modified activities to make them compatible with PowerShell 3.0
 Added error handling for starting the Webclient service
 Tested and verified remote processing
 combined a few sequences to avoid scoping problems
 Added code to download a list of online files and then compare instead of trying to 
 get each file online individually and then compare.
 Tested remote installation
 Modified version requirement to v4 since I have no v3 clients left to test with
 
 2.1
 Added detailed progress information
 Added Passthru parameter and changed default behavior to not display files as they are copied

 
Learn more about PowerShell:
http://jdhitsolutions.com/blog/essential-powershell-resources/

  ****************************************************************
  * DO NOT USE IN A PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT UNTIL YOU HAVE TESTED *
  * THOROUGHLY IN A LAB ENVIRONMENT. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.  IF   *
  * YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS SCRIPT DOES OR HOW IT WORKS, *
  * DO NOT USE IT OUTSIDE OF A SECURE, TEST SETTING.             *
  ****************************************************************
#>

Workflow Update-SysInternals {
[cmdletbinding()]
Param(
[Parameter(Position = 0,Mandatory,HelpMessage = "Enter a folder path")]
[Alias("Path")]
[string]$Destination,
[switch]$Passthru
)

Sequence {
    #Validate path
    Write-Verbose -Message "Validating destination path $Destination"  
   
    if (Test-Path -Path $Destination -DisplayName "Testing Path") {

        Write-Verbose -Message "Destination $Destination already exists"
        
    } #if test-path
    else {
       
       #Create the folder
        Try {
            Write-Verbose -message "Creating $Destination"
            New-Item -Path $Destination -ItemType Directory -ErrorAction Stop -PSProgressMessage "Creating $Destination"
        }
        Catch {
            Write-Warning -Message "Failed to create $Destination. $($_.Exception.message)"
            #Can't create the folder so bail out
            Return
        }

    } #else
}

Sequence {
    #Verify there is webclient service installed
    Write-Verbose -Message "Verifying WebClient service is available"
    Try {
        $test = Get-Service -Name Webclient -ErrorAction Stop -PSProgressMessage "Getting Webclient service"
    }
    Catch {
        Write-Warning "Could not find the WebClient service. Aborting."
        #Bail out
        Return
    }

}

Sequence {
    #start the WebClient service if it is not running
    Write-Verbose -message "Checking status of WebClient service"
    if ((Get-Service -name WebClient).Status -eq 'Stopped') {
         Write-Verbose -message "Starting WebClient"
         Try {
            Start-Service -name WebClient -ErrorAction Stop -PSProgressMessage "Starting WebClient"
            $workflow:Stopped = $True
         }
         Catch {
            Write-Warning "Failed to start WebClient service. $($_.exception.message)"
            #can't start service so bail out
            Return
         }
    }
    else {
        <#
         Define a variable to indicate service was already running
         so that we don't stop it. Making an assumption that the
         service is already running for a reason.
        #>
        Write-Verbose -Message "Service is already running"
        $Workflow:Stopped = $False
    }

    Write-Verbose -Message (Get-Service -Name WebClient | Out-String)
   
}

Sequence {

    #get current files in destination
    Write-Verbose -message "Getting current listing of files from $Destination"
    $current = Get-Childitem -Path $Destination -File -DisplayName "Getting current files"
    
    Write-Verbose -message "Creating a list of online files"

    #dowload list of files
    $webfiles = Get-ChildItem -Path "\\live.sysinternals.com\tools" -file -DisplayName "Getting online files" -PSProgressMessage "...this might take a little time"
    
    if (-NOT $webfiles) {
        Write-Warning "No webfiles found"
        #if no online files found something went wrong so bail out.
        RETURN
    }
       
    Write-Verbose -Message "Found $($webfiles.count) online files"   

    #download files in parallel groups of 8
    Write-Verbose -message "Updating Sysinternals tools from \\live.sysinternals.com\tools to $destination"

    foreach -parallel -throttle 8 ($file in $current) {
        #get the web version
        Write-Verbose -Message "Testing $($file.Name)"
        
        $online = $($webfiles).Where({$_.name -eq $file.name})
        
        if ($online.LastWriteTime.date -gt $file.lastWriteTime.date) {
            Write-Verbose -Message "Copying $($online.fullname)"
            Copy-Item -Path $online.fullname -Destination $Destination -PassThru:$Passthru -DisplayName "Downloading files" -PSProgressMessage $online.fullname
        }

    } #foreach

    Write-Verbose -message "Testing for online files not in $destination"

    #test for files online but not in the destination and copy them
    #compare to current list and get a list of file names that are missing
    $names = Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $webfiles -DifferenceObject $current -Property Name -DisplayName "Comparing files" | 
    Select-object -ExpandProperty Name
    foreach -parallel -throttle 8 ($file in $names) {
        Get-Item -path "\\live.sysinternals.com\tools\$file" -DisplayName "Downloading missing files" -PSProgressMessage $file | 
        Copy-Item -Destination $Destination -PassThru:$Passthru 
    }
    
    if ( $workflow:Stopped ) {
        Write-Verbose -message "Stopping web client"
        Stop-Service -name WebClient -PSProgressMessage "Stopping WebClient"
            $workflow:Stopped = $True
    }

    Write-Verbose "Sysinternals Update Complete"
} 

} #end workflow

<#
Copyright (c) 2016 JDH Information Technology Solutions, Inc.


Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:


The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.


THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.
#>

You can read more about this script at http://bit.ly/1mwGnP3

If you run this on a PowerShell v3 system you might get a few errors as the first iteration of PowerShell workflow didn't like activities without parameter names. I need to find a few minutes to clean up the code and re-test.

I have updated this so that you can use it as a more traditional workflow. You could use this to remotely download files as long as the remote computer has the WebClient service. See the changelog in the file for more details.